Mittens
by Ditto Redeaux
Summary: A collection of stories set in my Magella!verse. Magella is an OC of mine who I hope you will enjoy getting to know as much as I am.
1. Chapter 1

_This is the first drabbley thing set in my Magella!verse. Magella is an OC of mine, and I hope you will enjoy getting to know her as much as I have. These stories will not be chronologically posted, they'll be more wibbly wobbly timey wimey. I'm really not sure how I feel about this piece yet, but yeah, here it is. R&R_

_D.R._

Do you remember the first time you opened her mind to the Ood song? She was so young. It was the first time she had ever seen snow. It took us over an hour of combined effort to get her into that ridiculous pink ensemble, and once we finally got the last bit on she informed us that she needed the bathroom. Somehow we made it out of the TARDIS eventually. Do you remember how you had to carry her out, how when you set her back on her feet she just stood there wide eyed and open mouthed, and how the snowflakes caught on her lashes and melted on her cheeks? How long were we out there, playing, frolicking. You taught her how to make a snow angel, I taught her how to make a snow ball. Ood Sigma found us out there on that snowy plane. Magella had never seen an Ood before. He took us inside, and the three of us held hands as we followed, you kept trying to shush me for encouraging her stifled giggles by imitating our host, but despite those nasty little exasperated looks you kept shooting me, neither of us let go of her hands. She hated wearing those mittens because it meant she couldn't hold on to us properly. She was our little touch empath even at that age. She used to do it to the TARDIS, she'd just stand there for hours with her eyes closed, her mind wide open, and her fingers splayed against the surface of a wall, or the console, or anything she could reach. Those mittens frustrated her to no end. You let go once we stopped, when the song overwhelmed you with its intensity. Just in case. She tugged on your coat though, those wide eyes all innocent curiosity. I remember what I said to you, I said: _"Don't you dare."_ Still, you kneeled in front of her and cast me an odd, almost injured, look before focusing those brown eyes back on her. I watched your fingers move to her face. I heard the soft gasp , saw how she instinctively recoiled from you. I didn't have to see her eyes; I knew by the hitched breath she drew in, they would be shining. When she looked up at me I could see the pain, and I nearly demanded that you take it away, that you put it right, but then she let go of me. She threw herself at Ood Sigma, hurled really, and you nearly stopped her, nearly grabbed her back, but then she just held him, or what she could reach of him which was pretty much just his knees. Our little four year old trying to comfort an Ood, she did it to each in turn. The wisdom of a child. Healing the world, one hug at a time. She didn't take your hand again even though you held it out for her; she wouldn't even look at you. I wound up carrying her back afterwards. You stayed behind for a while. She didn't want to relinquish the mittens that night, and I didn't have the heart to take them away from her. We didn't actually talk much the rest of that day, I think all three of us were caught in our own little world, and it took us years to seek out a planet for another snow day. Still, she never once asked you to take it away.


	2. Not in the Sixties

_Magella is sixteen, told from Jack's POV_

* * *

Magella was four the first time she ran away from home. She came here to Torchwood, and she stayed with us for two years. The second time she was sixteen, practically a lady, and she didn't even stay two days. It hadn't been that long for us. It really hadn't, it had been weeks maybe, just under a month. There was still leftover holiday candy and some souring eggnog lying about the hub. We hadn't been prepared for the precocious child who had just been there at Christmas to grow up so quickly. I didn't recognize her at first, how could I have? She had just been here.

"Uncle Jack!" She had come in with Gwen who looked very much like she was trying very hard not to be completely lost in the conversation. She looked like she had stepped out of some grungy war themed video game, dirt smudged her cheeks, and her clothes weren't in any better shape, torn and filthy. She had a ruck sack slung over one shoulder. She was cheerful enough though, and kept up a stream of steady chatter, not leaving enough room for anyone to get a word in edgewise.

"You really need to redecorate, it looks exactly like last time. When was last time anyways? A year ago I think, we were supposed to be here for like a few hours to see a play, turned into a few days. We got the year wrong though, went to the new Men in Black movie, which worked out fine, I like popcorn, but then there was that mess with the aliens brainwashing people through the advertisements, didn't really clear that one up, they'd been doing it for years anyways, buy coke, turn off your cellular devices. I need to borrow your vortex manipulator."

It took me a moment too long to register what she was asking. I had already taken it off and dropped it into her hands when I finally managed to put together a hasty "It doesn't work" cutting off the end of her thanks.

"Oh but it will, I'm very clever." She was already fiddling with it, pulling tools out of her bag, clearly tools that didn't belong on twenty first century earth. "There's a concert, in the sixties, the Back Street Boys, I thought I'd sneak out and go see it."

I lifted something out of her open bag that looked suspiciously like a battered vote Saxon poster. "I think we both know you aren't going to see a concert, especially not the Back Street Boys, and not in the nineteen-sixties, might want to try the Beatles next time though, I've heard good things about them."

She snatched the poster away smoothing it before folding it again. I crossed my arms, "What is this really about Mags?" The teen didn't look up though, "_Magella_. Where are you really going?"

She squirmed slightly under the scrutiny, shuffling a bit, "I have an… internship… with the British prime minister, I'll get college credit and everything for it."

"In 2008?" She nodded hesitantly, and I shook my head. "Magella..."

She finally whirled on me, "I'm sick of people treating me like a child. I'm all that is keeping this family together and I need to understand what I'm fighting against and if no one will tell me I'll find out for myself."

"You might not like what you find." I warned even as she slung her bag back over her shoulder.

She shook her head, "I'm sorry Jack." She vanished before I could say another word.

She was seventeen when she returned an hour and a half later.


End file.
